What does a middle class Christmas look like?!

[Petitepenguin]

Just wondering if the cost of living is changing things ... I'm not mc but live in London. My most mc friends spend xmas in London up to xmas eve & head to Norfolk for xmas day & the following days. Then head off skiing to France the day before new year's.. Their run up to xmas with the kids is super busy too filled with carol services, Christmas events & art workshops. It looks idyllic.

Panto, Kew Gardens, Christmas market the week before. Christmas Day I always play tennis, as well as do presents and meal. Elf the Musical on Boxing day evening. 27th sale shopping day out. 28th - 1st we go to Jersey to stay with family. Feel embarrassed writing this out. Do appreciate we are lucky.

I don't know that it's particularly "posh" to have grown up in Norfolk, op.
Lots of people living abroad go home for Christmas, it's perfectly normal.

I’m firmly established middle class, we just do Christmas at home nowadays. Used to go to parents when they were still alive, but since losing them ( quite young) we all established our own Christmas routines. I don’t ski, DH has footballers knees so wouldn’t even contemplate spending all that money to end up in a French hospital for a week. DS has had the opportunity but was never interested. I think with global warming it’s becoming a bit hit and miss. Expensive spa holiday if there’s no snow. Most of DS’s friends have already been skiing in Canada this year.

I think the pandemic has disrupted the traditional Christmas, a couple of years of doing Christmas at home has been a big eye opener for many. So much easier than packing up everything to spend a stressful few days with extended family.

DS19 is happy as long as he has access to sherry, port and an endless supply of pigs in blankets.

I've really noticed an uptick in people doing and saying things in a certain way which I think sometimes is to mimic what they see as upper middle class behaviour, examples are describing things as great fun, such fun, describing how x happens for the children and y for the adults, e.g. hot chocolate for the children and plenty of champagne for the adults. Also supper instead of dinner. And it's somehow often linked with having quite a few children and thriving on the chaos.
On your first post OP, I think the London exodus, Norfolk country Christmas and NY skiing probably signifies either genuinely long-standing upper middle class roots where skiing is part of the calendar and family have a large house in the countryside, or, wealth and the ability to buy into that lifestyle. I know both groups and recognize similar traits across them but it feels a bit more forced amongst the middle classes who may now be wealthier than their parents were and can create this sort of life. And they are able to see that doing certain things is 'de rigeur' because they have observed it and want that life, whereas for people where it really is normal it doesn't register as a 'thing'.
I think middle class Christmas in the true sense of middle class probably does include typically some sort of church based activity, either through kids school or being part of local COE communities, going to pantos that are objectively a bit crap but traditional, visiting festive places locally that have lights up and spending time outdoors, having the space and time off work to get together with extended family and enjoy food drinks and play board games.
I always think of the royle family where they laugh at parlour games and say what's wrong with the telly!
I had a mc childhood and dh is similar and we'd identify as mc now, but wc parents who went to grammar schools and did well, our normal is some of the things listed above but with slade, selection boxes, early presents opening and no church.

We are middle class. There will be lots of fresh air and bracing woodland walks, interspersed with a lot of wine and board games. We don't ski, but we do have horses, which stops you from spending the entire festive season lying on the sofa under a blanket eating canapes.

And they are able to see that doing certain things is 'de rigeur' because they have observed it and want that life, whereas for people where it really is normal it doesn't register as a 'thing'
Spot on.

My colleagues all seem to be going ski-ing, though not sure if they are away for Christmas itself or going eg on Boxing Day.

No darling, you're not. HTH

Identical

Harrumph.

<hoists judgy jodhpurs>

I’m not sure about my class but i like early pressies, an early lunch and lots of Roses chocolates. So suspect this is a solidly working class Christmas!

Did once go to Norfolk for New Year and can confirm it was rammed full of upper middle class Londoners. Very lovely though!

My BIL used to say 'I'm off to my estate in Gloucestershire " when asked what he'd be doing over the holidays. The estate was a small council estate where they'd bought a house in a hurry when had to move for work at short notice.

@newnamethanks funny.

I thought Norfolk was full of inbred weirdos? Or so my friend from Norfolk told me. UC then?

@Hayst the poshos head to NORTH Norfolk. The rest of Norfolk is fairly normal. We live in West Norfolk, lots of rural poverty, crappy schools etc...

I’ve always thought of us as being fairly standard middle class, nothing particularly flashy. For us, the first week of the holidays is for either traveling to stay with family or staying at home and (usually) hosting either siblings or parents for the week. The run-up is indeed very busy with carol services, kids’ concerts, community events, markets, Christmas parties with friends, and performances like the Nutcracker. On Christmas Eve we’ll go to a church service, and then from Christmas Day through to about the 30th we like to spend relaxed time as a family with puzzles, board games, rambling walks in the forest followed by mulled wine at home (we live rurally), and general lazy fun. We mainly survive on nibbly charcuterie board type food and have very few actual meals except of course for a the main Christmas Day one. We do usually go skiing over the New Year week, but it is a fairly humble affair, no 5 star hotels or catered chalets. I love spending that second week with my husband and kids in the fresh mountain air, getting lots of good exercise after what feels like a month of busyness and excess. It is a great way to re-set before going back to daily life.

I knew there was a reason why people looked at me a bit funny when I said we'd been off to North Norfolk, as exMIL had a place near Cromer for holidays.

If they'd asked, I'd have said it was a static caravan between East and West Runton...

Alan Partridge!

Hahaha,I’m in Norfolk now at PILs.
We are not middle class, well I’m not but since they moved here 20 yrs ago, they changed into royal family wannabe. It’s all Barbours clothes, Waitrose/ M&S, Lexus and Range Rovers only. FIL is now eyeing vintage rolls Royce.